Cemetery of Splendor
Strand Releasing | Release Date: March 4, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
88
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Julia CooperMar 10, 2016
The mesmerizing and lingeringly paced Cemetery of Splendour, picks up where Freud left off. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyMar 4, 2016
The fantastical and surreal are presented with unshowy practicality. It's magical realism mixed with kitchen-sink drama, seasoned by a haunting sense of history as a sentient entity. Read full review
100
The New York TimesGlenn KennyMar 3, 2016
The mood Mr. Weerasethakul conjures is all the more extraordinary when you consider that the movie’s premise, in the hands of almost any other director, would be used to build some kind of horror movie. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineJames LattimerSep 21, 2015
It gently and often imperceptibly shifts between past and present, legend and modernity, wakefulness and reverie. Read full review
100
Screen DailyAllan HunterMay 20, 2015
Maintaining his fondness for long, contemplative shots, Weerasethakul creates a deceptively serene sense of storytelling, with gentle grace notes of wry humour. Read full review
100
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 20, 2015
It is so lived-in and authentic in its real-world detail, and so enigmatic and mysterious in its diversions and sidelong glances, that it's difficult not to see it as overridingly personal, not just to the director but to the viewer. It's a true act of the most optimistic communication and communion. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenMar 10, 2016
Each scene, beneath its surface calm, throbs with longing, dislocation and intricately woven layers of time. Read full review
90
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonMar 1, 2016
As is his custom, Weerasethakul addresses his nation's martial history with the lightest of touches. Read full review
90
VarietyJustin ChangMay 20, 2015
While Cemetery of Splendor is unabashedly a work of slow cinema, the oft-hurled pejorative of “difficult” seems a particularly poor fit for a film whose unforced lyricism could scarcely be more graceful or inviting. Read full review
83
The Film StageNick NewmanFeb 29, 2016
[Joe's] latest film is as enveloping as anything he’s ever made: a work that’s as darkly comic on subjects as specific as hospital regulation as it is sober-minded about perils as universal as comfortable living, one open to the possibilities of spiritual awakening while confronting us with questions of belief. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid EhrlichSep 18, 2015
Delicately placed on a sonic bedrock of chirping birds and distant traffic, Cemetery of Splendour is a whisper of a film that can only cast its spell if you let your breathing slow and give yourself over to the urgency of its spectral dimension. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerMay 20, 2015
Past lives and ancient ancestors are evoked through conversations that are both cryptic and oddly matter-of-fact, in a work that has the realistic vibe of a documentary but the unearthly qualities of a sustained reverie. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 20, 2015
It is such a strange film in its way, stranger still if you are not accustomed to Weerasethakul’s work, and it needs a real investment of attention. But there is something sublime in it. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 20, 2015
This is the same wondrous journey on which Apichatpong sends his audience: inwards and downwards, to a place where the simplest rhythms of everyday life become hallowed and mythic. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonMar 24, 2016
If you haven’t seen a Weerasethakul film yet, here’s a good opportunity, but leave your expectations at the door. There’s no one like him. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 20, 2015
For the occasional lapse...there is often a striking image or sly moment of humour to take away and overall, the film rewards persistence. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesJohn HartlMar 18, 2016
What the film does have going for it is a ghostly atmosphere that leads to a few surprising developments, including some color effects and a charmingly off-the-wall musical number. Read full review
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